Polio had been battled to near-extinction after decades of effort, but this year the WHO confirmed 68 new cases and declared it an international public health emergency. Nearly 80 percent of those cases are in Pakistan.
Why is this? According to the New York Times‘ Donald McNeil Jr. (5/6/14), “Polio has never been eliminated there, Taliban factions have forbidden vaccinations in North Waziristan for years, and those elsewhere have murdered vaccine teams.” McNeil also quotes a WHO spokesperson towards the top of the piece: “So we’re saying to the Pakistanis, the Syrians and the Cameroonians, ‘You’ve really got to get your acts together.”’
The Times underlined the emergency today in an editorial, explaining that Pakistan has such high numbers “largely because Taliban factions have forbidden vaccinations in conservative tribal areas and attacked healthcare workers elsewhere.”
There’s a crucial piece of information missing here—one that these outlets know full well. In 2011, the British Guardian (7/11/11) reported that the CIA used a fake vaccination drive led by Pakistani Dr. Shakil Afridi to gain entry to bin Laden’s compound and gather DNA to confirm his presence there. As McNeil himself reported in 2012 (7/9/12), that revelation led to suspicion and banning of vaccination teams in the tribal areas of Pakistan. At the time, the WHO argued that, while it was a “setback…unless it spreads or is a very longtime affair, the program is not going to be seriously affected.”
Then the killings started; the Times reported several times on killings of polio vaccination workers in Pakistan, noting in June 2013 that these attacks “escalated” after the revelation of the CIA plot. And the following month, McNeil reported that after Dr. Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason, “Anger deepened when American lawmakers called Dr. Afridi a hero and threatened to cut off aid if he was not released.”
Fast forward to this week, and CBS Evening News (5/5/14) likewise avoided the CIA connection in reporting the most recent story, as anchor Scott Pelley noted: “Most cases are in Pakistan, where vaccine workers have been murdered on suspicion that they’re spying for the United States.”
The PBS NewsHour (5/6/14) was one of the only outlets that mentioned the CIA issue, in a report by correspondent Jeffrey Brown:
BROWN: Dr. Anita Zaidi, a pediatrician, cited a fake vaccination campaign that the CIA used in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
ZAIDI: Which has hugely damaged public health programs, not only in Pakistan, but in many, many countries, because people ask all kinds of questions. They now think that they might—the vaccine programs might be actually spy operations.
This story was well-reported in the past, particularly by the Times; why the silence now that the problem has been declared an international emergency?
Edited 5/8/14
Not the news that’s fit (to State Dept.) to forget.
To paraphrase Johnnie Cochran
If the fact doesn’t fit
We must remit.
At least the CIA didn’t start the epidemic by actually making people sick, as they have been alleged to have done in the past (including a whooping cough epidemic on Long Island, NY).
Jan, how do you know that? I’d have thought that there was little point to the strategy unless there were enough infections to scare them into action. Are you suggesting that the CIA is ethical?
Jan, my question is how you know that the CIA didn’t start the epidemic by actually making people sick. A two-pronged approach makes more sense than just hoping that people get sick.
Yeah, well Rome thought it ruled the world – so did the Byzantines, the Greeks, The Ottomans, the Persians, the Spanish, the British and so on and so on but where are they now and history shows the depths of depravity of the ignorant
Why is it that progressive organizations all turn reactionary when it comes to health care. This pro-vaccine report is being played all over the internet and feels like Big Pharma is paying for it.
The polio vaccine never reduced polio in the US despite the marketing spin. Polio incidence was way down when the vaccine hit the market. This from CDC data itself. Almost all cases of diagnosed polio since the vaccine were caused by it. That is why the US stopped mandating its use in the 1980’s??? Now in other countries, children become paralyzed after the vaccine and several have died. There is not evidence of the vaccine doing anything good for people but it sure makes a fortune for Big Pharma.
Further, it was a contaminated drug and caused many cancers. When it became known that the vaccine contained carcinogenic material Salk’s reaction, along with his buddies was “OOPS!”
Vaccines have never been proven to work.
They have never gotten beyond ‘theory’ in real science.
All reduction of diseases can be better related to improved diet and hygiene as well as improved public health programs like clean water and better sewage.
I wish progressive people would understand that medicine is a business just like every other business and its bottom line is their bottom line and controlling political centers to ensure fast tracking of their drugs, etc. For some reason people seem to trust the men in the white coats as if they were real thinkers and creators of a health system. No. They are high paid pawns in the medical industry, often succumbing to bribes to help sell product regardless of its efficacy or safety.
Vaccines have never been proven safe or effective. They have never gone thru double blind random controlled studies. They have never been tested in bulk (giving several at a time). There has never been a long term study of them except in the public.This makes the public uninformed guinea pigs. And the adverse reaction statistics are often ignored, down played, or are simply not recorded by the doctors who receive the complaints.
Osama died in 2001.
Tanya, I hope you only had to cut and paste that rubbish rather than type it. I wouldn’t wish that degree of time-wasting on anyone, not even one with such backwards views as yours.
Snow-shoe – if you’re asking if the CIA started the polio epidemic in Pakistan, actually making people sick? I don’t know.
Aside from the main story, I find it interesting that the CIA wanted to collect DNA from the person they thought was Bin Laden in order to confirm his presence. That means they already had a DNA profile for him to compare the sample to? How? Why?
Tanya, are your views affected by the fact that you are a homeopathic consultant, is this what they teach you?
Silence now (from whoever got to declare it an international emergency) because Afghanistan’s health is still knocked up without a lot of design, personages who do healthcare and sign it Afghan, the historical ‘no evidence’ colorist in the comments is keeping people from cracking out larger local fixups, and because it’s a blameless health decision, not least compared to criticizing your visiting legit doctors with imprisonment and gunfire.
How are they getting by on the HMO manuals and care agreements then? Someone must be writing very agreeable basics…
Tasteful, gentlemanly and malafa, positivism CIA ops also hard-put to prep area for accurately retold short fiction, WHO. Work left to postpunk fake beard contingent.
Tanya, I’m no paid quackbuster – sadly, I bust your quackery for free.
Calling polio a “syndrome” is an interesting but transparent trick. Polio is a virus, with a genetic signature just as recognisable as that of any other organism, so saying “when the syndrome reappears is will not be called polio” is just silly, even if it didn’t contain an obvious typo. It will be immediately recognised as polio or a mutation thereof, just as it has in Pakistan… in this article, in fact.
C’mon Tanya, you’re on a roll. Are you going to tell us that vaccines cause autism? Please do – we all need a good laugh right about now…
Tanya, it seems you’re the one lacking in reading skills or attention – I didn’t call your comments trash. Also, I understand how you’d feel that “cognitive dissonance” is a term that you’d hope to deliver a knockout blow, but I suspect you don’t actually know what it means based on how you’ve used it twice in relation to me. Where do you see any conflict whatsoever in my position? You need to learn some new words.
Good idea, Tanya. I suspect you’ll be more comfortable back with the no-vaxers and the rest of the homeopathetic crew, where facts are less important.
Thank you for reminding us about another shameful example of how far our government will go. When this was first reported by the mainstream media, the tone was one of “how clever of us”, almost gloating over the deed. Just one more example of how our actions overseas bring unintended consequences (“Blowback”) to our shores.
Steve Nordquist, calling Polio a “syndrome of symptoms” is analogous to saying that the earth is inhabited by a syndrome of symptoms known as humankind. You could argue that that’s not an incorrect statement… if you could be bothered.
Is US using polio as a weapon? http://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2014/05/us-using-polio-as-weapon.html
And since when is a handful of cases an epidemic?
If that were so then autism should be on the front pages daily as a terrorizing epidemic when 1:50 boys succumb regressively and including the girls the totals are 1:65 in the US today
The reason of course is simple–they don’t have a vaccine to sell for billions of profit! This whole thing with the CIA and epidemics is part of the fear mongering tactics. Many, if not most people in the world are suspect of vaccines.
Tanya, whether you regard it as an epidemic or not is is a matter of choice, as there doesn’t seem to be any real numerical criteria either way. I would have thought that as an anti-vaxer though, you’d be more disappointed than most at the outbreak. According to your CDC, the objective of the vaccination program is to stop vaccinating once polio has been eradicated. (http://www.cdc.gov/polio/plan/index.htm) This “handful of cases” is why big pharma continues to make money from the polio vaccine.
If polio gets eradicated, we stop vaccinating for it and big pharma stops making money from it. If it doesn’t get eradicated, we continue vaccinating and big pharma keeps making money out of it. You can’t mix and match.
You mentioned autism in your post – is there any reason for that? Whenever I see mention of autism from an anti-vaxer it raises suspicions that they believe that vaccination causes autism. Do you believe that?
I don’t address it because it’s incorrect. Polio is a virus and a virus contains genes. Polio is a specific disease with a specific genetic signature. It’s not a “response to different toxins”, it’s an actual biological agent, which is why a vaccine for it is possible.
Ten percent of what population constitutes an epidemic? The family? The village? The country? The world? Never mind – I’m happy to refer to it as an outbreak rather than an epidemic if you’d prefer.
As for the link between autism and vaccination… well, there isn’t one. Andrew Wakefield was lucky not to go to jail for fraud, but that pales in significance to his real crime of feeding on the insecurity of parents and fostering guilt over something they had absolutely no control over. You object to fear mongering, yet you indulge in it against a very vulnerable group of people. Suggesting to parents that they either risk their child’s life by not vaccinating or risk scrambling their brains by doing so is disgusting. Show me one credible publication linking the two.
Here Tanya, just for you. http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/huge-meta-study-vaccines-reveals-no-link-autism
Jim West in his article “Pesticides and Polio: A Critique of Scientific Literature” mention few interesting thing about polio and organochlorine pesticide like DDT or BHC.
“A search of MEDLINE (“polio” and “poison”) finds about 45 contemporary articles where polio-like disease is attributed to poison. This recognition of the relationship between polio and poison is restricted to the agriculture industry–animals cannot hold industry liable. The terminology found includes the following:
polioencephalomalacia
poliomyelomalacia
polyradiculoneuritis
polioencephalomyelomalacia
lumbal poliomyelomalacia
multifocal-poliomyelomalacia
spinal poliomalacia
polio and high-sulfate diets
bovine polioencephalomalacia
neurological picture similar to that of poliomyelitis
cerebrocortical necrosis (polioencephalomalacia)
lead poisoning in grey-headed fruit bats (Pteropus poliocephalus)
atypical porcine enterovirus encephalomyelitis: possible interaction
between enteroviruses and arsenicals
Polioencephalomalacia and photosensitization associated with
Kochia scoparia consumption in range cattle”
This is how DDT was advertise in
“DDT so safe you can eat it 1947”